Helping children on the autism spectrum deal with hospital admissions

For anyone, undergoing surgery is stressful. For children on the autism spectrum, it can be even more traumatic. Sensory differences are present in the majority of children on the autism spectrum,1 and an increasing number of first person accounts illustrate the effects those sensory differences have on autistic people's everyday functioning.2 The National Autistic Society recently launched a public awareness campaign, Too Much Information, to raise awareness of the fact that apparently challenging behaviours seen in autistic children may be a result of sensory overload rather than ‘bad’ behaviour (http://www.autism.org.uk). Many autistic people also struggle in unfamiliar environments and situations, and thrive when uncertainty is kept to a minimum. …